Socioeconomic status and language training: learning motivation

14 Nov 2023

A learner's actively selected behaviours or activities to increase and manage their language acquisition are at the heart of a language learning strategy. Some writers emphasise the procedures or technologies used to gain knowledge when describing language learning processes, while others emphasise behaviours or actions toward the tasks or the role of consciousness.

In terms of language acquisition, previous research has abundantly proven the relationship between motivation and learning methods. However, few studies have explored the effect of socioeconomic position on second or foreign language learning. We explored socioeconomic status as a mediator of the link between motivational orientation and language learning method usage among teenage students using questionnaire data from a significant metropolitan population in South Korea. 

A set of hierarchical linear models offered empirical evidence that, when using simply intrinsic motivation, low-socioeconomic status teenagers preferred to adopt social techniques comparatively frequently. On the other hand, students of better socioeconomic status demonstrated higher levels of effort, mastery goal orientation, internal control, and greater use of cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory, and social strategies. These findings imply that an adolescent's socioeconomic position influences the link between motivation and adopting various language learning tactics; they also suggest that low-socioeconomic-status pupils learning foreign languages require more support.

The level of socioeconomic status affects not only the motivation in language learning of adolescents but also adults. These research results are used in planning and organising classes in business language training on Website.